The Feudal Régime in the West.—The Ruling Classes and the Ownership of the Soil.

The first period of the Middle Ages bequeathed to the West a political, social, and economic régime, which had assumed definite shape by the tenth century, and which reached the height of its power in the three centuries which followed. This régime, which we call feudalism, provided a sort of frame for the activities of labour during some 400 years.